Dead Men Tell Tales

by Harry Rimmer

Plate 14

Murals and frescoes from tomb walls

When her husband-brother-consort became of age, he naturally rebelled against her usurpation. He gathered a company of adventurous nobles about him and forced the queen to abdicate, after which she disappeared under circumstances which would have interested Scotland Yard, if that noted institution had been in existence in that day and place! The ambitious young king took the name of Tuthmosis the Third, and left a brilliant record as a conqueror and builder. Counting the twenty-one years he lived as co-regent with Hatshepsut, he ruled the land fifty-three years, which was an enviable span for those warlike days.

If the present accepted chronology is right, he came to the throne in 1501 B. C. and died in the year 1447. This would have made him the Pharaoh of the Oppression! In which case, the queen Hatshepsut would have unconsciously offended him in elevating Moses to a place of prominence and power, which might explain why Moses felt it necessary to flee from Egypt when he was in trouble. At any rate, out of this tangled skein of human conduct and ambition, some present help is offered to the learning of our day by the known facts that have been clearly established from the relics of this embattled couple. The name of the queen Hatshepsut was abhorrent to her brother-husband-regent-successor; and he tried to obliterate it wherever it appeared. But she had built so many great works and had left such ample records that his actions in this matter came to nought, and she lives today to shed the assurance of probability upon the record of Moses.

We have seen her obelisks, her records and some of the ruins of her great works, and the entire pattern is of a piece with the demands, both chronological and ethnological, of the text of the Scripture. It is apparent that not only dead men, but also dead women, may tell tales, if their voices are heeded and the ears of the listener are not stopped with the wax of infidelity and disbelief.

The amazing and scrupulous accuracy which is maintained by the Old Testament in its historical statements is once again demonstrated by the record of Ahaz as it is given in the Old Testament and found on the monuments in Assyria. We read in II Kings and the sixteenth chapter, these words:

In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.

Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father.

But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.

And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

Then Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.

At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and dwelt there unto this day.

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.

And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.

The visit of Ahaz which closes this record was made in 732 B. C. Tiglath-pileser has left his own story of these stirring events and has called Ahaz by name upon his monument. The unfortunate action of Ahaz in calling for Assyrian aid against his enemies Pekah king of Israel and Rezin king of Syria, resulted, according to Tiglath-pileser’s account, in his invasion of both Syria and Palestine. From thence he carried away into captivity the two tribes of Reuben and Gath, and the half tribe of Manasseh. The distress of Israel was not ended until Hoshea, shortly afterward, became the new king of Israel. As a matter of policy he formally accepted the yoke of Assyria and became the vassal of Tiglath-pileser.

In the Assyrian Room of the British Museum, Wall Cases 14 to 18 contain a valuable collection of inscribed bowls, ostraca, and fragments of records which extend from the days of Assur-resh-shi, down to the end of the Assyrian dynasty. Among them are fragmentary inscriptions from the reign of Tiglath-pileser the Third. He is known in the Scriptures also by his Babylonian name of Pul. In I Chronicles 5:26 both names are found in the one verse, as though the scribe were anxious that the identification should be complete:

And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.

Tiglath-pileser again appears under the name of Pul in II Kings 15:19:

And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.

In the twenty-ninth verse of this chapter, however, his Assyrian name is given alone, as is done in the sixteenth chapter.

In the above cited wall cases, exhibit K 2751, is an inscription of Tiglath-pileser’s setting forth some of his conquests, and an account of certain of his building operations. Among the tributary kings who accepted his yoke, he specifically mentions Ahaz king of Judah.

Modern man is so used to the phenomena that make up the miracle of our modern living that such fascinating possessions as this are not generally appreciated and properly valued. Here, however, we hear again the voice of a man who died in the year 727 B. C. The phenomenon is seen in the fact that in spite of the indescribable vandalism and wreckage wrought by those intervening ages, a fragment of clay persisted, and remained in existence until it could be uncovered from the dust heaps of antiquity by the one generation that desperately needed its testimony and was able to interpret and prize its record!

Here indeed is a dead man who tells tales, and who tells them with such authority and accuracy that the mouth of criticism is stopped and the Word of God completely vindicated. Incidentally, Tiglath-pileser’s record corroborates the prophecy of Isaiah, concerning the destruction of both Israel and Syria, because they had joined their forces to make war upon Judah.

This prophecy is given at length in the seventh chapter of Isaiah and was the instance of introducing the greater prophecy of the final redemption of the people with the coming of Messiah. He was to be identified, according to Isaiah, by means of the miracle of the virgin birth.

When Omri, the general of the armies of Israel, was elevated by popular acclaim to the throne of dominion, he climaxed an astonishing career that left a deep impression upon antiquity. At the beginning of his reign the nation was divided in its allegiance and this division resulted in a civil war that was bitter, though brief. The power and might of Omri quickly pacified and subdued the land, which accepted his dominion, and for twelve years his hand guided the helm of the ship of state. One of his earlier acts was to buy the hill of Samaria for a sum that is given as two talents of silver, which would be in the neighborhood of $4,000 in our reckoning. So impressive was his personality that from his day on to the end of the kingdom, the land of Israel was generally known among the Assyrian peoples as the Land of Omri.

On the black monolith for instance, which was set up by Shalmaneser the king of Assyria, there are many sculptured pictures which illustrate the text of this priceless historical record. One of the scenes shows that among the conquered rulers, one is entitled “Jehu the son of Omri.” A record is made of the silver, gold, lead, vessels of gold, and of other materials that Jehu brought in tribute to Shalmaneser. (See [Plate 18].) This black obelisk may be seen in the Nimrud Central Saloon of the British Museum in London. That this was a general is seen from the fact that on the nine-sided prism which gives the record of Sargon concerning his conquests in Palestine, the great Assyrian lists the people of Israel whom he calls “Bit-Khu-um-ri-a” (Omri-land), among other subdued races. Omri was succeeded on the throne by Ahab, who was a young man when he came to the throne. He left an unenviable record of apostasy and idolatry, but was none-the-less a courageous and able administrator whose work strengthened the realm greatly. In the twenty-two years of his reign the Word of God was ignored and unbelief swept over the land. In his day the first persecution of God’s people, which was directed against their ministry, began when his wife Jezebel caused the slaughter of the prophets.

The entire career of Ahab occupies considerable space in the records of the Old Testament and is almost as prominent in the monuments of antiquity. One of the most outstanding and notable of his early acts was the famous overthrow of Benhadad, the king of Syria. The invasions of Israel by Benhadad are fully covered in the historical texts of the Old Testament, so they need no recapitulation here. When the Syrian king suffered an overwhelming and crushing defeat at the hands of Ahab, he submitted himself to the king of Israel with a humble plea for mercy. In spite of the denunciation of the prophet, who warned that Benhadad would bring disaster upon the realm, Ahab restored him to his Syrian dominion and made a covenant of brotherhood with him. Later on, Ahab and Benhadad united in a rebellion against their Assyrian overlord in one of the most disastrous acts of his career. The battle that decided the campaign was fought at Karkar.

In the British Museum, the Nimrud Central Saloon exhibits a stele of Shalmaneser the Third which bears the identifying number of 88. The inscription sets forth the names, titles, and ancestry of the king and gives a complete account of several of his military adventures. He states that in the sixth year of his reign, he battled against certain allies who had rebelled against his authority. Among them he lists “Ahab of the land of Israel.” Shalmaneser tells how he defeated this coalition and slew fourteen thousand of the Syrian warriors in one great battle.